Amazing Teenagers Across the Globe Prepare for the Olympic Games

Some talented teenage athletes with a Rustic spirit of adventure and goodwill are counting down to the Summer Olympics. The games are set to begin in Tokyo on July 23. Making it to the Olympics as an athlete is certainly a huge feat, but getting a spot as a teenager is even more so.

Generally about three-fourths of the 11,000 athletes at the Summer Olympics are between the ages of 20 and 30. A number are older than 30, including several competitors in sports ranging from women’s soccer to shooting.

Among the younger athletes competing, there are several in daredevil sports like skateboarding, which is new to the Olympics this year. Others will be battling in sports that tend to attract younger athletes, such as swimming and women’s gymnastics.

Two of the more notable athletes who will be at the Olympics are both Syrian. Hend Zaza is expected to be the youngest athlete at the Games. She is 12-years-old and will compete in table tennis. Another well-known Syrian is returning to the games after competing as a teenager in the 2016 games. Swimmer Yusra Mardini was on the inaugural Refugee Team when she was 18.

Mardini fled Syria in 2015 in an overloaded dinghy. When it lost power, she jumped overboard with her sister and spent three and half hours towing the boat through dangerous waters. She will be returning to the games this summer to compete in the 100-meter butterfly.

Participants from Every Corner of the Globe

In general, athletes from more than 200 countries and territories have participated in the Olympic Games over the decades. The only nation-state that has never sent an athlete to the Olympics is Vatican City.

To make participation easier, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) sets no age requirements for the games. However, some individual sports have their own rules, such as gymnastics which now requires competitors to be 16.

Before that rule change, gymnastics had the youngest known athlete to have participated in the modern Olympics games. Greek athlete Dimitrious Loundras was only 10-years-old when he competed in gymnastics in 1896. He was among the 250 “men” who competed in the games back then.

Today’s teens have much more competition and some will be under pressure to medal, including some very young stars.

Athletic Prodigies

-Track and Field

17-year-old sprinter Erriyon Knighton is among the talented teens lighting up the sports community. It’s believed he is the youngest American man to make the country’s Olympic track team since 1964, and he has a good shot at winning a medal. That is despite the fact that he didn’t start running track until his freshman year of high school and parts of his sophomore and junior year seasons were interrupted by the pandemic.

Knighton also is a football star and is giving up college offers in that sport to pursue track. That seems to be paying off since he has already beaten two of Usain Bolt’s youth records.

-Diving

15-year-old diver Chen Yuxi from China is favored to win gold in the 10-meter platform competition. She first won a gold medal in the world championships in this event when she was only 13.

“Everybody told me to relax before the final, but I still could hear my heart beat,” Yuxi said after medaling. “I was shaky in the first two dives and then I felt better and better.”

–Skateboarding

Several younger teens will be dealing with their nerves in the skateboarding competition. It joins surfing, karate and sport climbing as newly added sports in this Olympics.

Athletic prodigy Sky Brown from Britain became a professional athlete when she was only ten years old. She will be 13 when she competes in Tokyo in skateboarding, though she considered competing in surfing.

Brown will be joined at the games by teammate Bombette Martin, who is 14-years-old. Brown told The Guardian that she hopes their participation will inspire other girls to try the sport.

“I feel like sometimes girls are scared to be the only girl, and they’re scared to be judged by the boys,” Brown said. “But I feel like watching the Olympics, seeing how many girls are doing the sport and how good [they are], they’re gonna really want to [try it].”

-Sport Climbing

In the newly added sport of climbing, competitors will need to complete climbs in three disciplines: lead climbing, which utilizes harnesses, speed climbing, and bouldering, which is a form of free climbing where no harnesses are used.

Among the notable teen competitors are 17-year-old Seo Chae-hyun from South Korea who is a medal hopeful in the women’s competition and 17-year-old Colin Duffy who is the youngest competitor on the United States’ climbing team.

–Swimming

There are many teenagers competing in swimming this summer. The United States’ alone has 11 teenagers on its 50-member team. That is the most the country has had since 1996.

The roster includes the first Alaska-born Olympic swimmer – 17-year-old Lydia Jacoby. The youngest member of the team is 15-year-old Katie Grimes who finished behind swimming legend Katie Ledecky in the trials for the 800m freestyle race. Ledecky was 15 when she won her first gold in the same event in 2012. Grimes said she was “speechless” when she reduced her time by 11-seconds to come in second.

–Women’s Gymnastics

This sport is legendary for fielding talented teenagers. The United States team favored to win the gold medal includes two teens – 18-year-olds Sunisa Lee and Grace McCallum.

Another teen joining the competition who is inspiring pura vida pride is 18-year-old Luciana Alvarado, who is the first Costa Rican gymnast to qualify for the Olympics.

The Quiet Victories

To ensure participation from men and women across the globe, the IOC uses a wild card system. This gives wild card spots to some athletes who don’t meet qualifying standards so they can represent their countries.

Among the teenagers benefiting from this system is 18-year-old swimmer Junaina Ahmed from Bangladesh. Her nation is the most populous country never to have won an Olympic medal, and its athletes aren’t favored to win this year either. But the immeasurable joy of participation is enough for athletes from about 70 countries that have never won medals.

The Well-Traveled Athlete

Overall, the Summer Olympics has 33 sports with 300-plus events that provide many opportunities for people across the globe. Those who are too old to be highly competitive in a sport at a young age still can hang onto hope.

There are numerous older people who have competed in the Olympics. This includes Canadian Ian Millar who has the record for competing in the most Olympic Games. He participated in equestrian show jumping in ten games. His first appearance was in 1972, and his last games when he was in his 60s was in 2012. He won one Olympic medal – a silver one for team jumping in 2008.

That is part of the magic of the games. It inspires athletes of all ages and nationalities to push their limits while becoming friends with people from all corners of the planet. And that attitude certainly sounds #soRustic.